Letters: Wild West lives on in Michigan Capitol

I have always been proud to live in Michigan, but lately I am disgusted at how our state leaders have made decisions that impact our citizens. The latest issue has to do with the state considering expanding gun rights or making our state immune from any federal regulations on weapons ownership.

How about the right to live in a safe community and not having to fear being killed by gun violence? What would be the harm in passing universal background checks on all gun purchases, banning military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, and supporting law enforcement by making gun trafficking a federal offense? Even gun owners acknowledge that these laws have merit.

As our nation continues to mourn the senseless killing of young children and the daily gun violence that takes the lives of so many people, we have become divided as to what is the best way to solve this issue.

I would like to see criminal charges brought against corrupt licensed gun dealers evading gun sales laws, preventing illegal purchases of weapons that contribute to gun trafficking, and enforcing greater regulation and oversight of gun dealers to reduce the number of illicit guns that enter into the market where criminals and the mentally ill obtain their weapons.

Any responsible gun owner should see these measures as a privilege and a right to gun ownership, and not feel their rights are being violated.

Anna Cassar,Farmington Hills

For the children?

The Legislature in Lansing never fails to disappoint me. This time it's guns, even proposing to thwart federal law.

Could we please consider a Legislature that would help prevent senseless tragedies, instead of returning to the days of the Wild West? Lansing has the power to create our state's climate. I urge lawmakers to ask themselves in what kind of place do we wish to raise our children?

Karen Meyer

Shelby Township

Dangerous legislators

In response to the Feb. 27 article "Bills aim to expand gun rights in Michigan": The chances of someone getting shot goes up when there is a gun present.

Fact: Guns do not make us safer. President Ronald Reagan was the most heavily guarded man on the planet when he was shot. The chance of another Newtown happening is minuscule compared to a gun being discharged accidently or in an incident of heated emotions by a minimally trained and armed school guard.

And who will pay the price? Not some imaginary "bad guy," but a child or teacher caught in the crossfire.

Our lawmakers and those who think a gun strapped to their side is protection must be watching too many action movies. That's not the way it works in the real world.

The people who are supposedly in charge of making our laws should educate themselves on the actual statistics around this issue, instead of wasting time and money creating laws that are based on false ideology and designed to sell more guns. Their antics are putting us all in danger.

Sherri Masson

Milford

'No guns' signs won't work

State Sen. Mike Green, R-Mayville, and gun enthusiasts like to appear generous while forcing the expansion of gun-carrying rights into previously agreed to gun-free zones.

But Green offers a bogus compromise: "No guns" signs simply don't work! The gun lobby already has a boycott in effect for businesses that dare to prohibit guns on their premises. Signs will only force those schools, churches and businesses to make a public statement on a very hot-button debate. Opting-out with a sign is simply not a workable solution.

How about if rather than passing the buck, Lansing for once does its job, tells the gun lobby "no," and lets companies focus on growing their businesses and churches and schools focus their energies on teaching.

Beth Martin

Grosse Pointe Farms

Any grown-ups there?

It would be so nice to get the grown-ups in the Michigan Legislature to come up with commonsense solutions to gun violence in this state instead of the outrageous bills that are being proposed regarding the expansion of gun rights. If there are any grown-ups in the Legislature, please raise your hands or hand!

Kathy Ross

Bloomfield Hills

One of the most important areas in the discussion of gun safety that has been ignored is the problem of alcohol. People under the influence of alcohol have done many horrific killings with the use of firearms. We should add to the information obtained through background checks data on the number of times an individual has been ticketed for driving under the influence. If more than twice in the previous three months, that person should not be allowed to purchase a firearm for any reason. This, and the question of mental health, would add tremendously to the safety of us all. Farmington Hills

Legislative hypocrisy

I find it interesting that the Michigan Legislature is proposing laws to circumvent potential federal gun laws and, at the same time, proposing laws that penalize school districts for entering into long-term contracts that thwart pending right-to-work laws.

Matthew Raftary

Romulus

Will Michigan secede?

In response to the article "Bills aim to expand gun rights in Michigan": Need more proof that the Republicans in Lansing don't think Michigan is in America? The Michigan Taliban is at it again. The tea party in Lansing wants to have its own country.

Rick Whitson

Southgate

Protect Freedoms

The current gun debate is not a controversy of gun lovers against those who fear firearms, but rather a very real defense of our Constitution against those who would use fear of guns and abhorrence of violence to the smallest and weakest in our society as a guise to attack our freedoms.

Not one of President Barack Obama's proposals or executive orders would have prevented the Sandy Hook tragedy, and the people who are assaulting our Republic know that fact full well. They are counting on blind emotion and ignorance of the real causal factors of this and other tragedies to motivate a wave of action against our Constitution. Do not blindly follow such deceiving people.

The current attempt to outlaw guns would not yield any real safety but, in fact, further erode our freedom.

Bob Cushman

Northville

Not more guns

We reduced drunken driving accidents without a total ban on alcohol. Then again, unlike the NRA logic on guns, we didn't think more alcohol was the solution to drunken driving.

Richard Jankowski

Milford

Require trigger locks

I don't know anything in the Second Amendment that says we can't pass a law mandating keyed trigger locks on every privately owned gun sold. The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School could not have happened if those guns had been secured with keyed trigger locks. Get it done. Do it now.

Hansford Hancock

Dearborn

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Letters: Wild West lives on in Michigan Capitol

I have always been proud to live in Michigan, but lately I am disgusted at how our state leaders have made decisions that impact our citizens. The latest issue has to do with the state considering